Colleges ’s strategic plan 2015-18 Fuelling Prosperity

Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18

APRIL 2015 Letter to Ontario

Ontario’s economy is ready to grow. Lower oil prices, a lower Canadian dollar, and the strengthening recovery in the U.S. all point to a renewed opportunity to lead the country in the years ahead.

To realize this potential, Ontario must continue to build its advantage in post-secondary education and training and transform its focus to align with the future needs of the economy.

Fuelling Prosperity – the strategic plan for the province’s 24 public colleges – advances a bold agenda to promote economic growth and stronger communities. It highlights the work colleges will do in partnership with others to ensure Ontario is at the forefront of higher education and training.

The strategic directions in Fuelling Prosperity speak directly to Ontario’s desire to see more students attain a post-secondary education that effectively prepares them for rewarding careers.

Fuelling Prosperity calls for reforms to help greater numbers of people pursue apprenticeship training. It promotes measures to help more people further their education, in everything from retraining to programs that help working professionals build on their credentials.

It speaks to the importance of helping businesses to grow and create new jobs by expanding the research partnerships between colleges and industries. As well, this plan addresses the critical need to lift more people out of poverty by helping them acquire career-specific credentials and training.

Fuelling Prosperity describes concrete policy measures that will elevate Ontario’s post-secondary system to international standards by expanding the range of career-focused degree programs available to students. It highlights the colleges’ commitment to develop new online offerings and expand the use of technology-enabled learning.

And it reinforces the essential role that colleges play in their communities. Building on the colleges’ strong connection to local needs, the plan confirms that colleges will play a central part in Ontario’s efforts to promote differentiation throughout the post-secondary system.

Fuelling Prosperity is the vision for a vibrant future for Ontario.

2 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 This strategic plan highlights many of the priorities for higher education in the years ahead and the work we will do in partnership with students, government, businesses and community leaders to ensure students throughout the province have access to the best college education possible.

As presidents of the 24 public colleges, this is our commitment to our students and to Ontario’s future prosperity and the strength of our communities.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Jensen Bill Best George Burton Ann Buller

Pierre Riopel Lise Bourgeois John Tibbits Jim Madder Collège Boréal Collège La Cité

Don Lovisa Peter Devlin Tony Tilly Anne Sado

MaryLynn West-Moynes Chris Whitaker Judith Morris Maureen Piercy

Ron McKerlie Dan Patterson Fred Gibbons Ron Common Northern College

David Agnew Jeff Zabudsky John Strasser Glenn Vollebregt St. Clair College St. Lawrence College

COLLEGES ONTARIO 3 The strategic plan at a glance

Vision The post-secondary destination of choice for internationally acclaimed, career-focused education that is essential to an inclusive, prosperous and globally competitive Ontario. Mission Colleges will lead educational innovations and advance public policy reforms to build the advanced workforce required to support new economic investments, rewarding careers and strong communities throughout Ontario.

Strategic priority 1: Developing a new generation of leaders and innovators

■ Align job seekers’ qualifications with labour market needs. ■ Produce more innovative and entrepreneurial graduates. ■ Partner with businesses and industries to develop new ideas, new products and new jobs. Strategic priority 2: Investing in learning and teaching excellence

■ Drive innovation in learning and teaching. ■ Globalize learning and teaching. ■ Pursue sustainable resources for career-focused education and training. Strategic priority 3: Providing the right education and credentials for tomorrow’s workforce

■ Reform Ontario’s apprenticeship system. ■ Strengthen the credit transfer system and linkages with secondary schools. ■ Expand the credentials framework to reflect global realities. Strategic priority 4: Increasing opportunities for access and student success

■ Help more students obtain a post-secondary credential. ■ Expand the availability of high-quality online learning resources. ■ Increase opportunities for adults to achieve career success. Strategic priority 5: Providing strong community leadership

■ Strengthen employment services on campuses. ■ Advance a safe and inclusive college community environment. ■ Promote more awareness of skills training needs in communities.

4 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 COLLEGES ONTARIO 5 Our Values ■ Student success: We promote inclusive college programs and services that will enable all qualified students to graduate to meaningful careers.

■ Learning and teaching excellence: We drive an innovative learning environment that focuses on best practices and delivers the high-quality, relevant education required by students and the labour market.

■ Responsiveness: We are responsive to our communities and to the needs of the labour market.

■ Collaboration: We act as one voice on critical issues in higher education while recognizing and respecting each other’s unique differences.

■ Strong stewardship: We are committed to excellent stewardship of public resources.

6 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Colleges are pivotal to Ontario’s success

“We see an increasing demand for business graduates from Ontario’s colleges. These graduates play an essential part in our efforts to build as a leading global financial services centre that creates new jobs and attracts new investment to the city.” – Janet L. Ecker, President and CEO, Toronto Financial Services Alliance

“Colleges are vital human capital generators and human capital is Ontario’s greatest comparative advantage in the global economy. The Chamber and its 60,000 members in the province concur with the observation in this plan that Ontario, with its robust college system, is well placed to lead the world in career-focused post-secondary education.” – Allan O’Dette, President and CEO, Ontario Chamber of Commerce

“Ontario’s colleges produce graduates with the advanced skills and qualifications that are essential to the manufacturing sector of today and for tomorrow. An emphasis on college education helps more people find rewarding careers and produces a stronger economy.” – Ian Howcroft, Vice-President, Ontario Division, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters

“As Ontario’s health-care system changes, Ontario colleges are key players in working to meet the dynamic and changing human resource needs of hospitals and other health sector employers. Health-care professionals - many of which are trained in colleges across this province - are committed to providing outstanding patient care and are well prepared to tackle the many challenges facing the system into the future.” – Anthony Dale, President and CEO, Ontario Hospital Association

“Practical and applied programs and research deserve to be elevated in status and resources to the point where they are seen as being every bit as important to the country’s future as our universities.” – Prof. Ken Coates, Career Ready (a report for the Canadian Council of Chief Executives)

COLLEGES ONTARIO 7 Strategic priority 1

Strategic directions: 2015 – 2018 DEVELOPING A NEW GENERATION OF LEADERS AND INNOVATORS

8 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Strategic directions: 2015 – 2018

Ontario’s colleges will fuel prosperity by teaching students to lead, innovate and adapt in a quickly changing economy, by developing programs that anticipate labour market needs, and by leading applied research activities that help businesses become more competitive. This will improve productivity and create new jobs and economic growth.

COLLEGES ONTARIO 9 Progress to date

Ontario’s colleges play a direct and important role in stimulating economic growth in the province.

In response to a more competitive economic environment, colleges create or transform about 200 programs each year. Recent examples include analytics for business decision-making and mobile marketing.

The colleges’ advisory panels of business experts have helped colleges to design programs that are producing new entrepreneurial thinkers with a keen sense of current practices in a range of fields. College advisory panels engage about 10,000 industry and community leaders across Ontario.

As well, Ontario colleges work each year with more than 500 companies on market-driven applied research activities that create new products and help businesses and industries to be more effective. These projects cover a range of fields from biotechnology and environmental stewardship to health care, municipal planning and gaming.

Working in partnership with government and business leaders, Loyalist College has launched a post-graduate program in entrepreneurial studies. Students in the eight-month program will work side by side in a living lab, creating start-up ventures under the guidance of business advisers and mentors. At the end of the program, students will present their proposals to an audience that includes potential business partners. Loyalist

10 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Georgian College and PowerStream, a community-owned energy company, have collaborated on a charging station that collects data on the amount of power from Ontario’s energy grid that is transferred to electric vehicles, and vice-versa. The research is looking at battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and will make recommendations to help improve energy efficiency, such as using electric vehicles for energy storage.

“The results and data the college gathers from this project will assist us in preparing our grid to handle the charging requirements of electric vehicles as their use becomes more common in the marketplace,” said Brian Bentz, the President and CEO of PowerStream. Georgian

Niagara College and MADD Virgin Drinks created an alcohol-free craft beer that was manufactured in 2014 at Waterloo’s Brick Brewing. More than 11,000 cases have been sold in and the non-alcoholic craft beer is sold at more than 2,500 Walgreens stores in the U.S. Niagara

Ray Roussy has had a substantial impact on the commercial drilling industry. Roussy, a graduate of Northern College, developed the patented Roussy sonic drill head after years of commitment without financial or engineering assistance from external sources. He joined the International Mining Technology Hall of Fame in 2014. Northern

COLLEGES ONTARIO 11 College graduates by employment sector

Preparatory/ upgrading 8% Engineering/ Community technology service 19% 20%

Health science 12 % Creative and applied arts Business 11% 24%

Hospitality 6%

College graduates are central to the province’s economic competitiveness.

12 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 COLLEGES ONTARIO 13 Goals for 2015-18

There is a growing demand for a more highly qualified and skilled workforce and for more innovations in the workplace.

Youth joblessness and underemployment continue to be major problems in the province. The youth unemployment rate in Ontario is significantly higher than the national average and many of the young people who have found work are employed in jobs that don’t utilize their talents and abilities.

The colleges will: Align job seekers’ qualifications with labour market needs. To help close the skills gap, colleges will work closely with government and other stakeholders to provide better information to students, parents and the public about the career opportunities that will exist in the years ahead. Colleges will work to ensure people entering the workforce have the qualifications to meet labour market requirements.

Produce more innovative and entrepreneurial graduates. Colleges will work collaboratively with the government to further transform post-secondary education so that greater numbers of students learn the entrepreneurial skills they need to establish their own businesses. Work will also be done to help more students participate in real-world research that helps businesses grow.

Partner with businesses and industries to develop new ideas, new products and new jobs. To help businesses create new jobs and new growth through innovation, colleges will advocate for more funding for applied research partnerships between colleges and employers.

14 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Leading-edge innovations

Prof. David Humphrey and students at Seneca College worked with Mozilla Foundation to improve Mozilla’s web browser, Firefox. Hundreds of Seneca students contributed ideas and code that helped make Firefox more interactive. The improvements included the development of console-like features that make it possible for online gamers to navigate 3D environments, inventing a way for web media to dynamically generate sound effects, and producing animated graphics within Firefox. A dozen Seneca graduates now work for Mozilla. In February 2015, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada presented Humphrey and Mark Surman of Mozilla Foundation with a Synergy Innovation Award for this work. Seneca

Students from the interactive media design and production program at Fanshawe College worked with TecVana, a digital marketing management company, to create a smartphone app that promotes tourism opportunities in rural Ontario.

The Geo Adventuring app allows users to find and create their own “adventures” for fishing, hiking, and much more. The app shows users where they can find those adventures in Ontario, based on their interests, the amount of time they have available and the distance they wish to travel. The app quickly landed more than 5,000 fans after its July 2014 commercial launch and generated more than 26,000 likes and shares during a subsequent three-week Facebook campaign in December 2014. Fanshawe

COLLEGES ONTARIO 15 Strategic priority 2

INVESTING IN LEARNING AND TEACHING EXCELLENCE

16 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Pre-eminence in career-relevant higher education is fundamental to Ontario’s global competitiveness. Colleges will work to ensure that innovation and excellence in higher education remain critical funding priorities for the province.

COLLEGES ONTARIO 17 18 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Progress to date

The demand for post-secondary graduates with career-specific competencies and skills is greater than ever.

Enrolment in Ontario’s colleges has reached record levels in recent years. The student population at today’s colleges includes students who have enrolled directly from high school, young people with partial post-secondary or recent workplace experience, recent university graduates, internationally trained individuals, mid-life career changers and people seeking retraining.

Recognizing the need for Ontario’s increasing student population to have access to high-quality studies, colleges and the provincial government have made commitments to improve the learning environment.

College program review processes and provincewide quality assurance audits demonstrate the colleges’ commitment to academic quality. These review processes include input from employers, members of the professional or certifying bodies, program advisory committee members, students and faculty.

The commitment to quality delivers results. The Key Performance Indicators that are gathered independently for the provincial government each year show about 90 per cent of employers are satisfied with the graduates they hire and 80 per cent of graduates are satisfied with the quality of their college education.

Colleges continue to demonstrate leadership in economic stewardship so that resources are focused on the classroom. Colleges are finding efficiencies by collaborating in a number of areas including the Ontario College Library Service that serves all colleges, the CAAT Pension Plan for all 24 colleges, sector-wide collective bargaining with faculty and staff, the joint purchasing arrangements through the Ontario Education Collaborative Marketplace, the OntarioLearn consortia for online college courses, and in partnerships with organizations such as universities and hospitals.

COLLEGES ONTARIO 19 Jim Caruk, a graduate of the sheet metal worker program at George Brown College, is the host of two HGTV series, Real Renos and Builder Boss, and is principal of The Caruk Group construction firm. He is also founder and editor of Renovation Contractor magazine. George Brown

Lee Renshaw, a 2009 graduate of the industrial design program at Humber College, took the luggage industry by storm with his creation, the Rise and Hang travel bag. In 2012, he was offered two deals for his product on CBC- TV’s Dragons’ Den and he has appeared on the Today Show and in US Weekly. His company is on track for $1.25 million in sales in 2015 and will soon be expanding to include gym bags, diaper bags and other accessories. Humber

20 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Goals for 2015-18

College education must be at the forefront of Ontario’s plans to promote economic prosperity and improve opportunities for people entering the workforce. The province will need to make a fundamental shift in its approach to higher education to ensure that college education and training is a priority.

Ontario’s colleges will: Drive innovation in learning and teaching. Through professional development and the sharing of best practices, colleges will continue to design innovative curriculum, integrate emerging technologies and implement evidence-based teaching strategies.

The sector’s quality assurance audit will move to an accreditation model to further validate the quality processes at colleges and to enable meaningful comparisons with other jurisdictions.

Globalize learning and teaching. The colleges, in collaboration with the provincial government, will design a broad-based internationalization strategy. This will include the development of a proposed new study-abroad scholarship for college students.

Pursue sustainable resources for career-focused education and training. As Ontario strives to put more emphasis on graduates’ career success, the sector will work with government to ensure funding models place a greater emphasis on college education. Colleges will pursue the creation of a distinct tuition framework for the college sector that responds to college priorities.

COLLEGES ONTARIO 21 Re-examining Ontario’s funding priorities for post-secondary education The per-student funding for college education in Ontario (from both provincial grants and tuition fees) is less than the amounts provided to universities and high schools.

Grants Regulated tuition fees

$16,000

$14,000

$12,000

$10,000

$8,000

$6,000

$4,000

$2,000

$0 Colleges Secondary schools Universities

Note: Figures for colleges exclude the tuition set-aside and collaborative and second-entry nursing and clinical education funding for collaborative nursing. Tuition fees for colleges are estimates. Sources: Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Ontario Public School Boards’ Association and Colleges Ontario.

In real dollars, per-student operating grants to colleges have fallen 16 per cent from the peak in 2007-08.

22 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 In March 2015, Collège Boréal launched its inaugural Trades and Technology Exploration Day for Young Women, to encourage young women to enter the skilled trades. More than 100 young women from high schools across the Sudbury and Nipissing districts – mostly Grade 9 students – were welcomed to the college to try their hands at the trades of their choice. Boréal

Conestoga College has officially launched a new applied research facility in Cambridge that will drive innovation, commercialization, productivity improvement and competitiveness for Ontario’s manufacturing sector. Seven dedicated labs hosted at the college’s Cambridge and Doon campuses will support the development of new products and processes across a wide range of areas, including advanced sensors, electronic systems, software, light manufacturing production and assembly, prototype production, 3D printing, and materials. Conestoga

COLLEGES ONTARIO 23 24 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 International impact

Algonquin College graduate Jon Cassar is an internationally acclaimed director who served as director, producer and executive producer of the well-known TV series, 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland. During his tenure, the series won multiple Emmys and a Golden Globe and Cassar was awarded an Emmy in 2006 for outstanding direction of a drama series. Algonquin

Bonnie Kearns, a contract disaster relief worker with the Canadian Red Cross, has mentored Afghani nurses and students, staffed a first aid station at Ground Zero following 9/11, and helped in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Lambton College, she was awarded the Red Cross’ highest honour, the Order of the Red Cross, Member Level. Lambton

James Forbes is an award-winning expert in railcar design who has improved the safety and productivity of railway freight cars in North America. Forbes, a graduate of Sheridan College, has more than 100 patents in the U.S. and Canada. He recently co-invented a railroad car with steering that works like a pendulum and has the flexibility to respond to rails that aren’t always even or perfectly parallel. Sheridan

COLLEGES ONTARIO 25 Strategic priority 3

PROVIDING THE RIGHT EDUCATION AND CREDENTIALS FOR TOMORROW’S WORKFORCE

26 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Ontario’s colleges will continue to promote student success by increasing access to effective post-secondary credentials that include experiential learning and lead to meaningful employment. Pathways throughout higher education will be enhanced and the range of certificates, diplomas and degree programs at colleges will be expanded.

COLLEGES ONTARIO 27 Progress to date

Post-secondary students are getting access to a broader range of programs and opportunities that better prepare them for long-term success. One of the most significant measures has been agreements to help more students pursue a mix of both college and university education.

Working with the provincial government and with universities, colleges have reached new agreements that allow college and university students to get recognition for more of their completed credits when they transfer to another post-secondary institution in Ontario. This has reduced costs and the time that students must spend in school and has helped greater numbers of students to get the full range of credits they need to prepare them for successful careers.

Colleges have also made real progress improving the transferability of completed credits throughout the college system. In 2014, Colleges Ontario and the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer announced an historic provincewide agreement that grants recognition for entire previous years’ credits when a student in a business diploma program transfers to the same program at another college. This has created a unique opportunity for students to study at any other Ontario college without losing credit.

As well, the college sector signed an important agreement in 2011 with the Institutes of Technology Ireland that allows Ontario college graduates to complete degree programs in Ireland and allows Irish graduates to obtain graduate certificates from Ontario colleges. The agreement was precedent setting in that it was an agreement between two post-secondary systems, rather than individual institutions.

Colleges are promoting the importance of expanding access to career-focused degree programs throughout the province. The colleges continue to work with government to promote the expansion of four-year degree programs at colleges and to introduce three-year degrees in career- specific areas to ensure students’ achievements are appropriately recognized and that attaining appropriate credentials for the future is as efficient as possible. Work is also being done to expand the opportunities for people to pursue nursing degrees.

28 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Goals for 2015-18

Ontario must create new opportunities for students to acquire the best post-secondary education possible to prepare them for long-term career success.

The goals in the coming years include:

Reforming Ontario’s apprenticeship system. Colleges will partner with the provincial government and others to help more people enter and complete apprenticeship training. This will include pursuing reforms to ensure the long-term financial viability of apprenticeship training at the colleges.

Strengthening the credit transfer system and linkages with secondary schools. Colleges will explore new initiatives with secondary schools and the provincial government to improve students’ and parents’ perceptions of applied learning. Work will also continue to be done to improve the system for transferring credits within post-secondary education.

Expanding the credentials framework to reflect global realities. To ensure that graduates are better positioned to find rewarding careers, colleges will continue to stress the importance of broadening the range of career-specific four-year degree programs at colleges and for the province to allow colleges to start offering three-year degrees that are also career- focused. The sector will also advocate for changes to promote a more diverse health-care workforce by allowing some colleges to offer stand-alone nursing degree programs.

COLLEGES ONTARIO 29 Strategic priority 4

INCREASING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACCESS AND STUDENT SUCCESS

30 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Colleges will help greater numbers of people from diverse backgrounds acquire the professional qualifications and technical skills to achieve long-term career success. This will bolster Ontario’s efforts to close the skills gap and reduce poverty.

COLLEGES ONTARIO 31 College education in Ontario is more accessible than ever, particularly to groups that were traditionally underrepresented in higher education.

With affordable tuition levels, campuses throughout the province and expanding opportunities in areas such as online learning, Ontario’s colleges have been reaching record numbers of students from all socioeconomic groups. In fact, more than half of the applicants to Ontario’s colleges come from households with a total annual income of less than $60,000.

Increasing numbers of students who were at risk of dropping out of high school were re-engaged in education and training through the dual-credit programs between colleges and high schools. The programs give students an opportunity to study at college and earn credits toward the completion of their high school education and towards a college education.

In fact, there are currently about 500 dual-credit programs in Ontario with more than 21,000 students. More than 85 per cent of the students complete their courses and many go on to study at college.

Colleges are playing a leading role in implementing the provincial government’s online education strategy, which will provide a broader range of online courses and programs to post-secondary students. With support from the province, colleges are developing more than 150 new online courses and modules. Colleges have also collaborated in OntarioLearn, a partnership of all 24 colleges started in 1995 that works collaboratively to develop and deliver flexible, demand-driven online learning opportunities.

People who have lost their jobs throughout the difficult economy have found new hope through the successful implementation of the provincial Second Career program. Students who are dealing with other issues such as mental health challenges are also getting improved support and services at Ontario’s colleges.

In 2012, Colleges Ontario spearheaded a partnership with the Council of Ontario Universities, the and the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance to organize a major conference in Toronto on mental health challenges. The recommendations from the conference helped produce new supports such as a provincial help-line for post-secondary students and a new website with improved resources for faculty and staff at colleges and universities.

32 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Chief Georjann Morriseau, a graduate of Confederation College in Thunder Bay, was instrumental in formalizing the governance development network that helps First Nation communities across Ontario with governance strategic planning. In April 2013, she became the youngest person to be elected chief of Fort William First Nation after serving one term as a councillor. Confederation

Jacques Seguin, a graduate of Canadore College, became president in 2000 of the food- services company, the Garland Group, and steered his team to astounding sales improvements over the next several years, while more than tripling the industry’s growth rate. In 2013, he became vice president with Garland’s parent company, Manitowoc, overseeing a $700-million division of the $4 billion giant. Canadore

Russ Montague, who graduated from Durham College in 2004, is CEO and founder of two startup companies. One company, ShirtPunch, is a 24-hour flash retail website that delivers to 96 countries and won two national awards, including the Consumer Choice Award. The other company, Nerd Block, is a business valued at more than $100 million that ships pop culture memorabilia to customers worldwide. Durham

COLLEGES ONTARIO 33 Goals for 2015-18

Higher education can transform lives. For Ontario to become a province where everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential, new measures are needed to help more people acquire a college education.

The goals for the coming years:

Helping more students obtain a post-secondary credential. To lift greater numbers of people out of poverty, more people must enter and complete post- secondary education. In partnership with government and others, strategies will be developed to improve the access and completion rates for Aboriginal Peoples, first-generation students, people with disabilities, people with mental health challenges, and others who need specific supports.

Expanding the availability of high-quality online learning resources.

To improve access to college education and improve student success, colleges will continue to expand the delivery of fully online courses/modules and provide greater access to hybrid models that combine in-class and online learning. Colleges will also continue to expand the integration of technology into the delivery of all college programs and services. Increasing opportunities for adults to achieve career success. Colleges will work with the provincial government and employers to provide innovative programs that help people returning to the workforce to upgrade their skills in an efficient manner and allow people in the workforce to upgrade their skills. Colleges will also advocate for the federal and Ontario governments to provide a level of resources for adult literacy that is aligned with investments in competing countries.

34 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 COLLEGES ONTARIO 35 Strategic priority 5

PROVIDING STRONG COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP

36 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 College programs are closely aligned with the economic and social needs of their communities. Working closely with local governments, business, community leaders, students and others, colleges will continue to advance robust, sustainable communities.

COLLEGES ONTARIO 37 Progress to date

Much of Ontario’s economic advantage comes from the extent to which college education is embedded in communities throughout the province. Colleges produce graduates who make a fundamental difference to local economic growth and strong communities.

Colleges recognize the importance of the province’s differentiation strategy to local economies and are, in fact, differentiated by their respective mandates, student populations, program mix and regions.

The results can be seen throughout the province.

The award-winning Ontario Self Employment Benefits program at Centennial College’s Centre of Entrepreneurship helps unemployed individuals overcome barriers and establish their own business. This 42-week program includes comprehensive business training, practical advisory assistance and income support. Since the program’s inception in 1987, more than 3,600 businesses have been created with a 97 per cent success rate. Centennial

Working in partnership with the Ontario government, Collège La Cité has agreed to coordinate the delivery of agricultural programming and services at the Alfred Campus in eastern Ontario that was previously run by the . This will ensure students continue to have access to French-language agricultural education. La Cité

38 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Sault College has provided training for the renewable energy field to communities along Lake Huron. The in-community training also prepared students for entry-level carpentry and construction jobs and allowed them to earn credits that could be used towards further post-secondary studies. Sault

Fleming College opened the Kawartha Trades and Technology Centre in September 2014. The 87,000-square-foot sustainable facility features smart-wired classrooms, shops and labs, ensuring students learn on new equipment with the latest technology. With the opening of the centre, Fleming has expanded its training space to accommodate more students and new programs. Built on a foundation of education and industry partnerships, the facility also hosts dual credit courses, workshops for elementary and secondary students, and is a regional hub for continuing education and contract training. Fleming

St. Clair College signed a memorandum of understanding with the , Hotel Dieu-Grace Hospital and Windsor Regional Hospital that committed the institutions to developing a transformative approach to health-care education and training. This partnership and the addition of a Centre for Applied Health Sciences and an on-site long-term care facility positions St. Clair as a leading provider of post-secondary health sciences programs. St. Clair

COLLEGES ONTARIO 39 Successful partnerships

“Queen’s University is fortunate to enjoy a very fruitful relationship with St. Lawrence College. Not only do we share faculty members, collaborate on programs, and benefit from having one another’s students on our campuses, we also hire a great many St. Lawrence graduates to work at Queen’s in a variety of capacities.”

– Daniel Woolf, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Queen’s University

“Our company is a world leader in the design and manufacture of stabilized, multi-spectral imaging systems. We count on highly skilled job-ready graduates to serve our customers, drive innovation, grow our business and sustain our industry leadership. Mohawk consistently delivers.”

– Roman Turchyn, Vice President, Human Resources, L-3 Wescam

“Health Sciences North has been hiring graduates from across Cambrian’s programs since the college’s inception. With a strong emphasis on clinical training, the applied learning that takes place at the college enables a seamless transition from the classroom to the workplace.”

– Denis Roy, President and CEO, Health Sciences North

40 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Goals for 2015-18

Colleges will build on their strong ties in their communities to help greater numbers of people learn about career opportunities and the wealth of programs available at colleges.

Colleges will: Strengthen employment services on campuses. As labour market information is improved, it is essential that greater numbers of job seekers are connected with employers. Working with the provincial government, colleges will advance their roles as important community hubs for employment and training services that better connect job seekers with meaningful employment. The distinct importance of each college to a community’s development and economic growth will also be enhanced through the strategic mandate agreements that each college negotiated with the provincial government.

Advance a safe and inclusive college community environment. New measures will be developed to enhance safety for the college community and to build greater awareness of campus policies, procedures and students’ rights. A new stand-alone policy and protocol on sexual assault and sexual violence will be promoted at each college. The policy will be easily accessible and clearly communicated.

Promote more awareness of skills training needs in communities. Colleges will work with school boards and guidance counsellors to strengthen and broaden the range of materials available to students about career opportunities in their communities, the types of careers that may be most closely aligned with each student’s strengths and interests, and the post- secondary options that best prepare students to pursue those careers.

COLLEGES ONTARIO 41 What our communities are saying

Polling research has confirmed that most citizens believe post-secondary education should prepare students for career success.

The following are the results of an online survey of 1,000 members of the general population that was conducted by Navigator Ltd. in January 2015.

The main purpose of post-secondary education should be: To teach specific skills and knowledge that can be used in the workplace: 62% To help a person grow personally and intellectually: 35% Don’t know: 3%

In this day and age, it makes more sense to get a post-secondary education that provides a specific job skill to prepare you for the workforce – more than two-thirds of Ontarians agree. Strongly agree: 33% Somewhat agree: 36% Neither agree nor disagree: 22% Somewhat disagree: 6% Strongly disagree: 2%

When it comes to Ontario’s post-secondary system, I would support any change that would help students get a job – more than 70 per cent of Ontarians agree, while only six per cent disagree. Strongly agree: 35% Somewhat agree: 37% Neither agree nor disagree: 22% Somewhat disagree: 5% Strongly disagree: 1%

42 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18 Conclusion

Ontario can lead the world in career-focused post-secondary education that promotes economic strength and prosperity for all.

Through new innovations, renewed commitments to collaboration and improvement, and clearly articulated goals and strategies, colleges will ensure students throughout the province have access to higher education that leads to fulfilling careers and builds a strong economy in vibrant communities.

The pathway is clear. Fuelling Prosperity details the goals that must be achieved and sets clear directions to transform higher learning throughout the province. Ontario’s colleges are committed to this strategic vision and will work with leaders throughout the province to fulfil this vision.

COLLEGES ONTARIO 43 44 Fuelling Prosperity: Colleges Ontario’s strategic plan 2015-18